DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

In 2005, about 1.5 million Americans will have a traumatic brain injury (TBI), which are caused by externally inflicted trauma, primarily through automobile and bicycle accidents, falls, contact sports and violence. About 80,000 of those most seriously injured will have substantial, long-term functioning losses.

It's the leading cause of long-term disability in children and young adults.

On the afternoon of October 21, 1988, a car driven by Ray Tenney of Akron, Ohio, suddenly slid on ice and broadsided a utility pole. It took Tenney six months to re-learn how to walk and over the years he has struggled greatly with short-term memory loss, balance, and slurred speech.

But his most difficult challenge has been his social life. “Your friends that you had before the accident tend to disappear (afterwards),” the 37-year-old Tenney said of TBI survivors in general in a telephone interview.

To help with the latter challenge, his mother Dawna and other mothers of TBI survivors began in Akron a nonprofit, faith-based “TBI clubhouse,” modeled after a similar group meeting in Cleveland.

“[Our clubhouse] is a place where people with TBI can make new friends,” said Tenney. “A TBI support group meets there, and we also have game tables and snacks.”

Akron's “Ballinger TBI Clubhouse” is open three days a week, six hours a day. It has about 30 members.

“For some people, the clubhouse is a way to make healthier contacts,” Tenney said. “Many people have a traumatic brain injury because of involvement with either alcohol or drugs. Our group provides a clean environment and is healthier to hang out with, to make new friends that aren't involved with alcohol or drug abuse.”

On the Ballinger TBI Clubhouse board of directors is a chaplain, who himself is a traumatic brain injury survivor.

Tenney usually is able to visit the clubhouse only twice a week because of conflicting “water therapy” sessions he receives at a nearby swimming pool. He also participates in “horse therapy” to help improve his poor balance, and music therapy involving singing and playing the keyboard.

Ballinger TBI Clubhouse opened its doors April 30 and is only the second TBI clubhouse in Ohio, after Cleveland's. Only a handful exist nationwide. Traumatic brain injury is the nation's fastest growing disability. It affects twice as many men as women, and especially men under age 25.

For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.ballingerclubhouse.org